BCIN House exam

The BCIN House Exam: Syllabus, Format, and the 2024 Changes That Will Catch You

The BCIN House exam is 70 multiple-choice questions in 3 hours, open book, with a 70% pass mark, written through Humber Polytechnic for $150 per attempt. Since March 30, 2026 it tests the 2024 Building Code, which deleted the defined term 'house', added 'secondary suite', went hard-metric on framing, and renumbered much of Part 9.

What does the House exam qualify you to do?

The House exam is one of Ontario's 16 Building Code qualification exams and the core technical exam for people who design houses. Passing it records the qualification against your BCIN (Building Code Identification Number) in QuARTS, the provincial registry, which listed roughly 2,700 house-class designers as of August 2026. Most house designers pair this exam with a legal/process exam, but the exact combination depends on your registration category, so confirm which BCIN exams you need before you book anything. Once earned, the qualification never expires. Code updates do not send you back to the exam room.

What is the format (questions, time, pass mark, cost)?

All 16 Ontario BCIN exams are open book: 70 questions, 3 hours, 70% to pass, $150 per attempt through Humber Polytechnic. The House exam follows that pattern exactly: 70 multiple-choice questions, four options each, all equally weighted, with a pass mark of 49 correct out of 70. You write either online under remote proctoring or in person at an Ontario College Test Centre, and results are released within 14 business days through QuARTS. Register at least 7 days before your sitting; cancellations must be requested in writing at least 7 days out and carry a $50 administrative fee. Full registration mechanics are in our BCIN exam guide.

What does the House syllabus cover?

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) publishes a free House syllabus for the 2024 examinations. At section level, the scope spans:

• Division A: Parts 1 to 3
• Division B: Parts 1, 5, 6 and 12; Parts 3, 4 and 7 selectively; Part 9 extensively (Sections 9.1 through 9.41); plus Section 11.5
• Division C: Parts 1 and 2, selectively
• MMAH supplementary standards: SA-1, SB-1, SB-2, SB-3, SB-7, SB-9 and SB-12

Part 9 is the heart of it. Note that the syllabus lists some exclusions at article level, so read the live ontario.ca page before you lock in a study plan. The section-level summary above is a map, not the territory.

Which 2024 code changes hit this exam hardest?

Since March 30, 2026, every sitting tests the 2024 Ontario Building Code, a revision carrying the 1,730 amendments in the 2024 code. These are the changes House candidates run into first:

If you learned the code before 2024, the renumbering is the sleeper problem. It does not feel like new content until the clock is running and the article you flipped to says something else.

How do you navigate Part 9 open book at speed?

Open book is a time trap: 70 questions in 3 hours works out to about 2.5 minutes each, and Part 9 alone runs from Section 9.1 to 9.41. Tab your hard-copy Compendium by section before exam day, since tabs travel with you to a test centre. If you write online, know the rule in Humber's Candidate Protocol: you must use the PDF that Humber Polytechnic provides, not your own annotated digital copy. So build speed on the structure of the code itself and on the official free Compendium PDFs, not on personal bookmarks that will not be there. The full method (tabbing, search terms, timed lookup drills) is in our open-book strategy guide.

How should you practise for the House exam?

Syllabus first: the free MMAH document tells you exactly what is examinable, so you study nothing that is not. Then move to timed, full-length practice: 70 questions against a 3-hour clock, checking the article citation on every answer, because the citation is what teaches you where the 2024 Compendium puts things. Ontario publishes no pass rates for these exams, so ignore anyone quoting one; what you can control is your lookup speed and your familiarity with the 2024 changes above. BCINprep's House bank is $129, bought once, with no subscription and no expiry. If you also need the legal/process exam, that one is sold separately, and taking two or more puts every one of them at $99.

FAQ

Sources: Humber Polytechnic examination-format page and Building Code Candidate Protocol (rev. March 2026); the MMAH House syllabus and study-guides pages on ontario.ca; MMAH 2024 Key Changes bulletin (July 2024). Last reviewed 2026-08-14. Found an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.